


all the men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them

by beccabecky



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Gen, No Romance, Not Canon Compliant, Not Canon Compliant - The Heroes of Olympus, Post-The Last Olympian (Percy Jackson), Pre-The House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus), Self-Acceptance, Self-Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-21
Updated: 2019-09-21
Packaged: 2020-10-25 09:20:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20721869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beccabecky/pseuds/beccabecky
Summary: “Freedom cannot be bestowed — it must be achieved.” -Elbert Hubbard (American writer, publisher, and artist)





	all the men will be sailors then until the sea shall free them

Calypso’s emancipation started slowly.**  
**

Calypso started to style her hair and appearance to make her like her reflection.

Cutting her hair short since she hated how long it was. It’s cut right under her chin.

Letting her eat as much or as little as she wanted to.

Trying to figure out the type of body she wanted and not what some men wanted her to look like.

Exercising in the sun and the rain to have her feel something other than dread.

Trying new skills like art, theatre, knitting, and cooking.

Slowly forgiving herself for all the times she tortured herself, trying to find ways not to suffer in attraction to someone else, torturing all the others who didn’t reciprocate her love for them. She was young and heartbroken, but she felt different now. More aware.

Having conversations with the heroes that ended up on her island, letting them get to know her if they desired so and letting her know them.

Letting herself fall in love with whomever she wants to, knowing full well they’ll never reciprocate. Because if she can love them, she can love herself. 

Finding ways to be honest with herself. She hates that the gods put her there, she falls in love too easily, she misses the old world she grew up in, she misses Atlas or more rather having a father figure in her life.

Showing all the emotions she can, crying when she’s sad, yelling when she angry, entertaining herself when she’s bored.

Soon, the boat comes all on its own. 

She didn’t understand at first, looking at the boat. She just went about her day, trying not to look at it. When the night came, she walked out of her cave and it was still there. Small, wooden, and her last escape from this hell.

She walked to it and it hadn’t disappeared. She kept reasoning it was just because the Gods or the Fates made a mistake. She was right in front of it now, and it still hadn’t poofed out of existence.

She stepped on it, and it was real. She pushed it and it moved.

She sat in it and it let her. 

Calypso, a nymph of sorcery, Daughter of Atlas, was finally free. 

She felt tears well up in her eyes and fall in the sea. She got out of the boat and it still hadn’t left.

She ran back to her cave and rambled with glee to her owl. “It’s here, Ibis! It’s finally here! I-I never th-thought that-” she broke down crying again on her bed and fell asleep.

She woke up and thought it was a dream, walking out of her cave with a coffee in hand (Hermes got her a container full of it), but there it was. Small, wooden, and unchanged.

She packed her clothes, food and water, and some knitting material in a duffel bag.

She said goodbye to her birds, her cave, and her air servants for the rest of the day before setting sail at night to a place she never thought she’d say. A place her last hero talked about over and over again.

“Camp Half-Blood,” Calypso whispered. “Freedom.”

And the boat set sail across the ocean, spraying saltwater on her face. But she didn’t mind, because this time, she was the one leaving that beautiful prison she once called “home”

Calypso smiled at the stars, feeling Selene looking after her as she rode along the waves to liberation. To freedom


End file.
